WITCHES

description

Hello!

thanks for visiting our campaign.

I am making a new piece, WITCHES and I am really excited about it. I’ve been really lucky of late to have been working abroad quite a bit, touring with Keith Hennessy and collaborating with friends in Wales, Berlin and Amsterdam but I haven’t been able to make or present much at home in over two years. I made a new years resolution that I would make WITCHES at home in Cork and show it in Ireland, (if you know me you will know how important this is to me).

WITCHES is an exploration of identity, the project aims to examine and celebrate the witch, the female and the celt as identity constructs that we can all wear. This is a project for my mother, for all mothers everywhere. This is a ritual for honoring the female, to try and readdress the inbalance which has been so catastrophic to our identity, to our bodies; social, erotic and solid.

It’s not just about male and female, “a” and “b”, one or the other, it is about oneness, a mutiplicity, a togetherness. Making this performance event we will honor the female, acknowledging where we are coming from and where it might be possible for us to go. It’s about the need for roots, tracing the blood back to the source, the maternal line. Eventually letting go and saying goodbye, taking traces with us to the mouth of the river.

I'm going to be creating this piece with an incredible ensemble of international performers, Cathy Walsh (IRL/DE), Asher O’Gorman (IRL/AU), Isabella Oberlander (IRL/AU), Claire Keating and Karina Sarkissova (SE) as well as an incredible volunteer ensemble from across the city of Cork. I have worked with all of these virtuosic and inspiring performers seperately on projects in the past and I know that bringing them together is really going to produce something MAGIC!

We are going to be working with shamanic states, holotropic breathing, improvisation, dis-identification and a wilderness practice, mining celtic methology and symbolism to generate new movement and scored choreography for the production. I have already spent nearly two weeks researching and developing this piece at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre as part of MAKE 2013. There will be crude oil, there will be coloured chalk, there will be a crowd and you will not leave this performance they way you arrived! The work itself will be created over five weeks as part of a production residency at Firkin Crane in Cork and will be presented as part of the WE LIVE HERE platform at Cork Midsummer Festival in June (21 -24) off site at a secret location.

We need you to make the magic happen, with the support of Cork Midsummer and Firkin Crane we have gotten the ball rolling but we still have to pay our performers, designers, production team and make costume, set and props a reality to present this work to you at Midsummer. huge thanks

rewards

Fund €10+

GOODY PROCTOR - Trainee Witch
Your name is still good in the village of Salem,
it is also going to look REALLY good in our programme!
thank you!

Fund €25+

LOCASTA - THE GOOD WITCH OF THE NORTH
You are so good to us! We knew we could count on you!
We've made you a charm, its a peg WORRY WITCH made by the cast specially for you!

58 Available

Fund €50+

HEDGE WITCHES EXCLUSIVE INVITE - Join us for a cuppa' witchy brew at our coven-tastic tea morning,
we will share potion recipes, partake in a lavender hand treatment ritual and we can try and cure what ails you!

41 Available

Fund €50+

GLINDA - THE GOOD WITCH OF THE SOUTH - You really are too good, thanks for this spell, to return the favor we want to offer you a "fake art healing". Combining elements of ritual, performance, body work, massage and improvisation this 20min therapy will leave you feeling like a new witch!

34 Available

Fund €100+

KALINYA - THE WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST - You are throwing around some serious shamanic power! RESPECT! Come and work it out with us two mornings a week at Firkin Crane.
- Morning Practice with the ensemble including TechnoYoga, Kundalini, Physical Work Out to prep you for your witchy day.

8 Available

Fund €200+

MOMBA - THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST - The Baddest Witch we know!
We want to know how you got so Bad, come to a private rehearsal and afterwards drink some elder wine (or whatever your poison is!!!) with the cast so we can hear your thoughts,

20 Available

Fund €500+

HAWAH - MOTHER OF ALL THINGS LIVING - We dedicate ourselves, this production and everything to you.
Unadulterated Access, this prize is so dark we have to take you into the woods and show you it in our cauldron!

1 Available

activity

the final countdown

Update posted on Monday 27th May '13 @ 12:05:12

Dear Witches,
Our coven has grown in size, from me and the rest of the WITCHES, deepest thanks for your support. It's an incredible thing that we are feeling, all the positive energy and support behind making this production has us buzzing.
Week 1 has passed in the studio and we have covered so much ground. Digesting Jane Bennett's Vibrant Matter, a book which is having a huge influence on the direction of the project, engaging in movement research together, filling the studio with earth and peat, breton dancing, holotropic breathing, casting spells, collecting elder wood. The cast are currently being fitted with their masks by master craftswomen Medb Lambert. You can follow all the progress over at
https://www.facebook.com/ruairidonovanchoreography
which is packed with photos, texts and videos!
We had the most amazing first meeting of our volunteer ensemble on saturday, we met 20 beautiful women of all ages and from all walks of life. a truly inspiring bunch. This incredible group, (most of which have no professional dance or performance training) are working alongside the professional company for the next four weeks to make WITCHES a spectacle for Cork to remember.
We have just over 24hrs left to go on Fund_it, and our fairy godmother has said that for every euro up to €1000 she will match in her donation! This is an incredible thing, matched only by your own generosity. We have to reach our target of €5000 by Tuesday morning or else we won't receive any of your pledges.
PLEASE help us by sharing the campaign link everywhere you can
www.fundit.ie/project/witches
If you know someone who has been meaning to pledge but hasn't give them a nudge as now is the last chance.
We are magic makers!
thanks again
Ruairi Donovan
Choreographer

Day 1 Beginnings

Update posted on Tuesday 21st May '13 @ 09:05:19

Hello Hello!
Over the weekend witches gathered in Cork City, after weeks and weeks of planning, Cathy & Karina arrived from Berlin, Asher left sunny Budapest behind her and Isabella stepped off the bus from Limerick to join Claire and Ruairi in Cork and the coven was complete.
Yesterday we started our production residency at Firkin Crane, the home of dance in Cork with the Shandon Bells ringing our welcome. A busy day, Medb Lambert dropped in to measure everyone for their costumes, we talked through all the logistics for the next six weeks, skimmed through research and salivated at all the potential and finally we moved.
Warming up together the atmosphere was focused and light, everything so comfortable and easy. Working for the afternoon on movement we found old ways and new ways to be together and more importantly we SWEAT and it felt good. To top the day off we finished with a site visit to The Lough, to really get the brain working, dreaming, dancing....
Its been an incredible weekend with over 25 people joining the coven on facebook, we are extremely grateful for your continued support. We are casting spells to make sure that we reach our target but if you can work your magic on friends and family by talking about the production or spreading the link for the campaign online we would really appreciate that.
you can check out rehearsal shots and snippets of research by liking us over on facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/ruairidonovanchoreography
have to dash, we are taking Laura Murphy's professional contemporary class at Firkin Crane this morning to wake up our sleepy bones and prepare for another great day in the studio!
x
Witches

the second witch is in town

Update posted on Saturday 18th May '13 @ 02:05:30

Hello all,
here I am, back in Cork, to encircle her little lake and convene with my coven. We witches are gathering ... our paths converging, and I'm a tad overwhelmed with excitement to see family and friends and begin working and playing as we move towards MIDSUMMER.
We've already brought some sun with us, let's see what else we can do together!
Thank you so much for supporting the project and pledging, we really appreciate it but we need your help, if you can share the link on your pages or convince a friend or family member to pledge to the campaign it would be doubly great!
see you soon!
x
Cathy

the first witch has landed

Update posted on Friday 17th May '13 @ 03:05:02

Hi!
I am Karina, the first witch arriving in Cork last night.
We were just vistiting Firkin Crane, our generous venue where we will be rehearsing. Three more witches are arriving on Sunday, and we will be all set to start heading towards the WITCHES performance in five weeks.
As a dancemaker/performer based in Stockholm and Amsterdam I am really excited to be in Cork, performing for Ruairí and experiencing a process happening on a bigger scale. Space as a female is something never given, but thanks to Firkin Crane and Cork Midsummer festival, we have the opportunity to explore our boundaries and potential outside of the walls of the theater, while using its tools. We have lots of work to do, but we are promising an experience for ourselves aswell as you.
Thank you for supporting our campaign, we need as many witches as possible in order to evoke this ritual we are preparing. Please spread the word over the weekend, we are going to work some serious magic fundraising over the next two weeks. Trust me, it is in the hands of some beautiful, smart and talented performers. An army of lovers cannot loose.

hubble bubble - help us make WITCHES a potion to remember

Update posted on Monday 13th May '13 @ 12:05:58

Dear Coven!
Its been an insane two weeks and we are so delighted that you have supported our project both by pledging and by spreading the word. You are such clever witches! We know that it is a large campaign BUT we also know that it is important to dream big, "be brave or go home", thats what we say and your support has helped us, so thank you so much.
We have just over two weeks to go and over 4k to raise so we really need your help again, we are getting serious about the multiplier effect. If each one of you could convince one person about how magical this project is and what good use we could put their money to if they pledged then we would be laughing all the way to Midsummer.
wait did someone say Midsummer? Yes! last week Cork Midsummer launched their exciting 2013 programme and we are delighted to be able to say that we will present WITCHES as part of the We Live Here platform, not only that but we will open the festival at 4am on the 21st of June with our first performance, it is going to be SPECTACULAR.
you can check out the web page here
http://www.corkmidsummer.com/programme/event/witches
This week we are busy with production business, the team is assembling in Cork, dreaming up beautiful design, over 30 people have volunteered to take part in the ensemble and we will start rehearsing next week. The five incredible witchy dancers are checking in for flights and trains and buses and will all be in Cork by next Sunday evening! We just can't wait to get into the studio at Firkin Crane and start working!
you can keep up to date with the project by liking us on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ruairidonovanchoreography
again thank you so much for getting behind the project so far, we really hope that you can help us make our target!
lets spread the word.
x
Ruairi